Bellator Gaining Ground?

[HectorG]

Bellator has some great prospects

Yeah. I’ll be watching jack Swaggers debut. Hopefully he’ll do alright.

 

[mjfan23]

Bellator is only one mistake away from irrelevance. And that mistake is signing Jon Jones

 

[FrankieNYC]

Ok fair maybe some fighters are paid 1k a fight. But how can they afford lyoto machida, mousasi, bader, etc...?

What do you mean by how?
They have to outbid UFC to get some names to be at the top of the card.

 

[BobsyaUncle]

Bellator’s model seems to be pretty smart.

I don’t think overpaying for good but boring fighters such as Davis and Bader is smart.

Nor is setting up Rory MacDonald to get humiliatingly big-brothered by Mousasi.

Coker seems like a nice guy but nice guys don’t tend to finish first in the fight promotion business.

 

[FrankieNYC]

I i do think no fighter should make less than 15-20k a fight.

Any new UFC contracted fighter makes an ave of $18k plus $3.5 in Reebok.
Contracts are $12/12 with 3 fights guaranteed per 12 months.
So if a new UFC fighter goes 2-0 or 2-1, he makes $70.5k that year, plus year round injury insurance.

That blows away anybody else & great for indy guys ask @AJ Garcia

IMO, the middling guys are where UFC has to pay higher.
These guys fill up the cards that UFC are getting paid $300m in US tv rights for.

Once you prove you belong in UFC (after 3-5fights) then the money should reflect being a pro athlete more.

 

[Judoka1532]

2019 will be a very important year for Bellator.
They yet to even break even, but should in 2019.
But realistically they are nowhere near UFC from a business standpoint.

They smartest thing they are doing is focusing on the non USA markets and less competing stateside.

I hope they and all MMA have a good year, because the sport as a whole has less interest.

Well yea I mean we can all agree ufc is head and shoulders above. the basis of the thread is really just to suggest bellator is doing better each year with signing better fighters. I'm not suggesting they surpass the UFC. Especially with the ufc signing with ESPN. I think the future is still bright for the UFC. But they have made some questionable calls that kind of help bellator. I think the ufc's thinking is pushing more and more fighters to move to bellator. Not enough to make bellator move into being a legit contender for ufc, but enough just to say bellator is doing better than they were before. Who know's---i'm fine with being completely wrong bc right now I still value the ufc more than bellator.

 

[FrankieNYC]

Well yea I mean we can all agree ufc is head and shoulders above. the basis of the thread is really just to suggest bellator is doing better each year with signing better fighters. I'm not suggesting they surpass the UFC. Especially with the ufc signing with ESPN. I think the future is still bright for the UFC. But they have made some questionable calls that kind of help bellator. I think the ufc's thinking is pushing more and more fighters to move to bellator. Not enough to make bellator move into being a legit contender for ufc, but enough just to say bellator is doing better than they were before. Who know's---i'm fine with being completely wrong bc right now I still value the ufc more than bellator.

Completely fair & I agree
Bellator should have their first year of profit in 2019 & that is HUGE
That might be the biggest story 12 months from now IF they do

A healthy Bellator is important for MMA

 

[Cpt Migraine]

^ Judoka and frankie's got this thread covered.. no (important) conspiracies, just business..

 

[leto1776]

Not even close. I don't ever tune in for their shows.

I'll watch big fights that they have, that's about it. Also, you can barely find a damn stream for them.

Who needs an illegal stream for an organization that used to air their events on their website, then switched to an easy to use, cheap streaming platform?

 

[SalvadorAllende]

You are only saying that because thats what you want to believe. Bellator doesn't have real drug testing and had a card headlined but two 50 year olds and Kimbo and DADA 5000. They pay as low as 1000 dollars to some fighters and have them selling their own tickets to be on the card. Its just pure hating to say Bellator is more professional. If the UFC had Royce vs Ken headlining a card they would be ripped apart and called a joke of an org

I´ll bite...

Dada vs Kimbo and Ken vs Royce was almost 3 years ago... I think it is pretty clear that Bellator has moven away from that.

Bellator is perfect as the #2 org. They serve the purpose of having a bunch of elite fighters that UFC is not willing to pay for and to put some great events for the fans from time to time.

I think Bellator growth in the future will have A LOT to do with how they develope and market they prospects (AKA, their hypemachine). They are doing an unprecedent job signing a lot of guys with zero or a few fights and building their records:

Darrion Caldwell, AJ McKee, Aaron Pico, Ed Ruth, Neiman Gracie, Tyrell Fortune, Tyree Fortune, Romero Cotton, MVP, Joey Davis, Tywan Claxton, Rafael Lovato Jr, and why not their WMMA FLW champion MacFarlane... and there is more.

Not saying all of them are going to be top fighters but some of them for sure will.

Damn.. Michael Chandler he was only 3-0 when he signed and he is their biggest star and a legit top LW. Same with Joe Warren who was a very legit BW back in the day and a big name for Bellator.

The problem they have is that they dont know how to hype the shit out of them like the UFC does. They need to learn how to promote and overhype fighters. I know most of those guys because Im pretty hardcore and love to catch guys from the starts of their careers but I dont blame any casual that think they are a bunch of cans who could not fit in the UFC.

IMO the biggest advantage that UFC has over Bellator is that they can generate interest in a bum like Sage Northcutt and get a lot of views while Bellator has a bunch of legit top fighters (Lima, Koreshkov, Nemkov, Tokov, etc) and nobody know who they are.

 

[FrankieNYC]

The problem they have is that they dont know how to hype the shit out of them like the UFC does. They need to learn how to promote and overhype fighters. I know most of those guys because Im pretty hardcore and love to catch guys from the starts of their careers but I dont blame any casual that think they are a bunch of cans who could not fit in the UFC.

IMO the biggest advantage that UFC has over Bellator is that they can generate interest in a bum like Sage Northcutt and get a lot of views while Bellator has a bunch of legit top fighters (Lima, Koreshkov, Nemkov, Tokov, etc) and nobody know who they are.

UFC didn't make Sage into a draw.
He did OK in ratings & was not a PPV draw.

90% of the publicity Sage received was on his end
He has an Entertainment Agent & PR person that got him on shows, etc.
Those shows were not for MMA, but to build his brand away from MMA.
Same with PVZ & Rockhold.

 

[CRISIS ACTOR]

When I look at a UFC card, I recognise 1 guy

When I look at a Bellator card I actually recognise 80% of the card

 

[FrankieNYC]

When I look at a Bellator card I actually recognise 80% of the card

There is no chance that is true
About 10 guys per card are people nobody ever heard of that are local to area & on card to sell tix

 

[CRISIS ACTOR]

There is no chance that is true
About 10 guys per card are people nobody ever heard of that are local to area & on card to sell tix

bellator cards are filled with guys who were popular 5-10 years ago in the UFC

 

[FrankieNYC]

bellator cards are filled with guys who were popular 5-10 years ago in the UFC

I don't think you have an F'n clue what you are talking about

Last card:
24 fighters
1 Former UFC fighter
16 unknown fighters

 

[skylolow]

I hope the UFC lose some of their monopoly, so that Bellator and other organizations can be stronger in order to give fighters more options at better pays.

Or maybe the fighter's bend over and pull there head's out of their asses and finally form an association to actually do something instead of cry about it behind the scenes. Promoters are promoters and they make there money off the backs of others and always will. More orgs or bigger orgs might help slightly but a lot of the issues at hand will remain or expand into more issues.

The fighters have a massive leverage in time. UFC has commitments with 100's of millions of dollars on the line with loans, employees, tv contracts, etc etc etc. They don't have time for a strike or whatever to drag out for 4 months. Fighters routinely sit months without making money from fighting directly. These various groups try to start something and it sounds like they can't get hardly anyone to sign up. A few fighters that do speak about it all I hear is excuses with these groups. So from a fan standpoint all I can say is good luck to fighters and whatever the UFC wants to do they'll do and you'll just have to take it.

This is sports and in sports usually one form/org/league reigns supreme and anything below fights for the scraps of about 5 percent or so of the market. So if the players in those sports want a voice then they have to form and association to speak as one and negotiate the basics for all.

 

[CRISIS ACTOR]

I don't think you have an F'n clue what you are talking about

Last card:
24 fighters
1 Former UFC fighter
16 unknown fighters

View attachment 497483

post preliminary and prelims? rofl, you must be one of those people who shows up to a party 5 minutes early and waits hours before anyone else shows up.

 

[FrankieNYC]

post preliminary and prelims? rofl, you must be one of those people who shows up to a party 5 minutes early and waits hours before anyone else shows up.

You are not bright
That is ... THE CARD

But even if I just posted the Main Event only (which shows you are not a real MMA fan) you were still wrong

I am guessing you were this way under your last banned name too?

maybe your next name (after this is banned) will do better

HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

[FrankieNYC]

Or maybe the fighter's bend over and pull there head's out of their asses and finally form an association to actually do something instead of cry about it behind the scenes. Promoters are promoters and they make there money off the backs of others and always will. More orgs or bigger orgs might help slightly but a lot of the issues at hand will remain or expand into more issues.

This ...
the only reason Bellator pays some more is because they have to in order to outbid UF,
They need some names

When undercard guys are making $1-2k & selling tix, that shows they are not doing thing because they are "pro fighter"

 

[CRISIS ACTOR]

You are not bright
That is ... THE CARD

But even if I just posted the Main Event only (which shows you are not a real MMA fan) you were still wrong

I am guessing you were this way under your last banned name too?

maybe your next name (after this is banned) will do better

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Yeah I'm not an MMA fan because I don't watch the post prelims and prelims of B rate MMA shows. <45>

I've been watching MMA since 2006, real MMA, PrideFC. You started watching a few years ago because of Conor McGregor.

If you actually spend your time watching mma prelims then obviously you're not a very successful person and I feel sorry for your pathetic existence soy boy.